Mounting controls on the front of an acoustic

redrighthand · November 2013

I'm interested in an acoustic for sale locally, and the seller has had a pickup installed with tone and vol controls mounted on the front (near the edge, j160 style). I don't mind how this looks - but was wondering if it might have some affect on the sound? What do people think? Here's a pic

ICBM · November 2013

It shouldn't affect the acoustic sound too much, but if he's just installed a piezo pickup (which I assume he has since I can't see a magnetic) with passive controls (again most likely because active preamps usually come as complete units) then the amplified sound will be shit. Piezos don't work properly with passive controls because they need resistances higher than any available pot to avoid loading them too heavily and making them sound thin and tinny.

So at the least I would plan on having to do work to the electrics. You could also replace the knobs with less grossly ugly ones as well

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redrighthand · November 2013

ICBM said:

You could also replace the knobs with less grossly ugly ones as well .

LOL - that had crossed my mind!

Wolftone · November 2013

The fewer holes in an acoustic the better.

octatonic · November 2013

It won't affect the sound much but ye gods it is ugly.

Make sure you get it for a knock down price as resale will be hugely affected.

ChrisMusic · November 2013

octatonic said: It won't affect the sound much but ye gods it is ugly.

And that coming from a man who went to Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon for a nose job on his current avatar, ha !

axisus · November 2013

Ewwwww ......... that looks so uncouth! I like it not and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. There are good reasons why you never see knobs on the front of an acoustic! Apart from aesthetics, the top is the soundboard:

"The soundboard is the top of an acoustic guitar, and plays the most critical role in determining the overall tone and projection qualities of the instrument"

octatonic · November 2013

axisus said:

Ewwwww ......... that looks so uncouth! I like it not and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. There are good reasons why you never see knobs on the front of an acoustic! Apart from aesthetics, the top is the soundboard:

"The soundboard is the top of an acoustic guitar, and plays the most critical role in determining the overall tone and projection qualities of the instrument"

Yes, it does and I agree it is ugly.

A couple of holes in the soundboard don't make a huge difference tonally or structurally.

If you have a look at these chladni patterns from an acoustic guitar top:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Chladni_guitar.svg/1000px-Chladni_guitar.svg.png

... you can see that most of the vibration occurs away from where the holes are mounted.

The bracing is pretty strong on these factory made guitars- they are built to stay together more than they are sculptured for optimal tone (the term is 'overbuilt') so I wouldn't expect any issues, other than horrendous resale.

Chladni patterns are not for this particular top, of course- but you get an idea of where the modes of vibration tend to be.

Every piece of wood is different of course.

ICBM · November 2013

Actually the mass of two pots won't make a lot of difference, especially not that close to the edge of the top.

But it is amazing how much the perceived 'right way' of doing things affects the value implications stuff like this…

Acoustic with massive plastic preamp box in the side: right

Acoustic with *magnetic* pickup and knobs on the front that looks like a vintage Gibson J160E: right

Acoustic with knobs on the front that doesn't have a magnetic pickup or doesn't look like a vintage Gibson: wrong

But an electric semi has the knobs on the front, and so: right. Even weirder, those hybrid guitars you sometimes get usually have the magnetic controls on the front and the acoustic controls on the side… which to me is very weird and awkward, but is somehow considered 'right' as well.

You could make this one a lot closer to right by fitting a magnetic soundhole pickup and nicer Gibson-type knobs, even though it doesn't look like a Gibson. Even just nicer knobs would go a long way.

Bogwhoppit · November 2013

ICBM said:

You could also replace the knobs with less grossly ugly ones as well .

Hey, leave me out of this

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Mounting controls on the front of an acoustic

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